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Triple Eight has been a powerhouse on the race track in Supercars and off, in so much that it has built many more cars and a vast number of components, as well as providing much of the manpower for the Gen3 project.
With the first season of Gen3 competition completed the work in Supercars has reduced, allowing the team to move onto other projects.
“We’ve had a couple of jobs from Qantas,” Quinn, the team’s largest shareholder, said on the KTM Summer Grill.
“Because it’s not just the race team; we have an engineering division that’s really quite high-spec and we’ve got certificates that we can make aeroplane parts and stuff.
“So we’re doing a couple of jobs for Qantas and that’s quiet exciting commercially because obviously the work for V8 Supercars has kind of dried up with the Gen3 thing, so we’re going to branch off into weird and wonderful engineering adventures.”
Triple Eight moved into its current Banyo race workshop in Brisbane’s north inDecember 2008, with 40 Depot St being the home of its Supercars operation and its activities as the Australian hub for Mercedes-AMG Customer Racing.
Down the road is its second workshop at 73 Depot St, which was earmarked for an expansion into non-motorsport work.
“We call it ‘Number 73,’” noted Quinn.
“I think it’s because it’s number 73 Depot St, but it’s like Area 51,” he joked.
“No, it’s number 73 and we have a bunch of guys over there that are doing a great job.
“It always was the plan to develop it into a bigger, better thing, but I think next year we’re going to have a wee bit of focus on that and we’ve obviously got the two V8s and also looking after the Mercedes GT3 division is quite a challenge as well.
“Triple Eight’s a tremendous business and the founder, Roland Dane, did such a good job with setting the whole thing up.
“It’s a marvellous culture that’s there – everybody gets on with their job; they’re all very, very good at their job – and I just stand at the back of the garage and drink Red Bull.”
For more from Tony Quinn, check out the full episode of the KTM Summer Grill.
